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Mike Rann has one of the most influential careers in South Australian politics. He was selected as the 44th Premier of South Australia in the year 2002 and was then re-elected in the years 2006 and 2010.
Even before becoming a Premier, Mike Rann already held several important positions in the state, like that of being the Minister for Employment and Further Education, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Minister of Youth Affairs and a lot more. Moreover, as a Premier too, he was playing multiple roles as the Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change, Minister for the Arts and Minister for Economic Development.
Needless to say, his impressive career in South Australian which lasted for almost two decades was always in the news.
Some highlights of his political career-
• 1985 Election- It was in the year 1985 that Mike Rann was first elected to Parliament as a Member for Safe Labor seat. Four years later in the state poll, he became the Aboriginal affairs, youth affairs, and employment minister.
John Bannon resigned due to the collapse of State Bank, and Mike Rann then became the business and tourism minister under Premier Lynn Arnold. In the electoral redistribution, his Safe Labor seat was abolished, and he was elected to the Ramsay seat during the 1993 elections, which the Labor party lost.
• 1994 to 2002- Mr. Rann was selected as the Deputy Opposition Leader until Premier Lynn Arnold resigned as the opposition leader in the year 1994. It was him who took the Labor Party to victory in the 1997 election. Mike was the opposition leader during the 2002 election when the Labor Party was only a single seat short of being the majority.
Peter Lewis who was a former member of the liberal party but now an independent MP supported Labor Party. This made Labor Party the majority in Parliament, and Mike Rann became the South Australian Premier.
• 2006 to 2011- Mike Rann again won the polls in 2006. In the same year, he also married Sasha Carruozzo who was an actress. Winning defense contracts and expanding the mining industry of Australia was some of the major achievements of the Rann government.
The political momentum started turning in 2009 after the allegations of Mike Rann having an affair with Michelle Chantelois, a staff member of the Parliament. Seven Network, the television network which broadcasted the affair allegations paid an out-of-court settlement and an apology to Mike Rann for the allegations.
• Resignation- However, he somehow managed to be re-elected as the Premier in the 2010 elections. In the year 2011, the pressure on Labor Party was increased by the powerbrokers to ask Mike Rann to step aside and allow Jay Weatherill, the Education Minister from ALP Left Faction, to become the new Premier.
On 20th of October 2011, Mike Rann resigned from the Parliament and Jay Weatherill was made the 45th Premier of South Australia.
After his career in the Parliament, Mike Rann was appointed as a professor at Flinders University and as visiting fellowship at the University of Auckland. He was also selected as a member of the International Climate Group and International Board of Ecological Sequestration Trust. He is now the CEO of Rann Strategy Group and a member of King’s Commission in London.